Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-11-27
OLD ENGLAND.
WAYS OF LIFE AS MgN HAVE FOUND
THEM OUT.
Some Curious Wills and Directions for
Burial-Evidencs that Living
Was Chean.

Some Curious Wills and Directions Tor
Burial-Evidencs that Living
Was Cheap.
David Kerr writes to the Times from
Gallows Green: That famous Irishman
who vowed to chang himself or perish
in the attempt" would have been quite
at home in this ill-omened place, which
| fully deserved its sinister name two cen
turies ago, in that enlightened age that
meted out the same doom to the starving
wretch who had stolen a penny loaf and
TO the hardened murderer vino had shed
| blood like water. IN 1886 two local
criminals were executed here by SEN
tence of the Dorking judges of Assize
In the following year the num-
Der OF hangings had increased to
five, an improvement which was
doubtless hailed as a gratifying proof OF
/ national progress by those sturdy BrtOns
Of the good old school who thought with
Hogarth that the two great duties Of a
righteous man were "tO help an honest
fellow in distress and TO bring n rogue 10
the gallows." In fact. the whole code of
England in the golden days which
so many enthusiasts regret seems to
have been on par with that which IS
said TO have regulated the Puritan
army during the final struggle with
Charles l.; ANY officer or souldier
who shall be absent from bis APP
pointed post withouten leave shall surely
die. ANY trooper losing his horse or
hackney through neglect, misconduct, or
gaming shall be slain with the sword.
Any victualer OBTAINING any souldier to
cause him TO err from the way shall be
cut off from his people. Any officer or
souldier neglecting or disobeying the
orders given unto him shall perish from
off the earth. Any officer or souldier
showing himself in any wise disconnected
with the quarters allotted unto him shall
be punished with death. And 50 on
through the whole list OF possible
offences.
But this dismal spot is consecratcd
to the service of death by another
memory even more gloomy aud terrible
than this. Beneath the grass that grows
rankly over it the dust of those who
were butchered by the law minQles with
that OF the victims who were mown down
by the destroying sweep of the frightful
pestilence which was then one Of the re-
curing features Of English life. Long
before the fatal summer of 1868 had
blasted into vOiccless and Iifeless desola-
tion the busiest streets of London, the
shadow of the plague had darkenei the
beautiful valley of Holmesdllc from one
end to the other, and had left (as in
Egypt of old mot n house wherein
there was not one dead" The county
records chronicle successive swoops Of
the destroyer in 1868, 1893, 1903, and
1917; but the most terrible of all was
in 1903, when (as one may read in the
archives OF Dorking), "lG6 corpses were
carried forth of the town at one time
and buried in a void place without it.
But this tragic gloom does not extend
itself over all the antique records Of
HOlmesdale, some of which have quiet,
unconscious dIollery worthy OF Robin
son Crusoe himself. Mention is made
III 1873 of ga certain Richard Nader
son, aged twenty-nine years, and not
above 3 feet and 3 inches high. but in
thickness as much as any other person.
whether the said "thickness were
mental or bodily is not stated.) As a
counterpoise to this fractional citizen,
two gentlemen of long standing in every
sense of the word were discovered here
about the same time by Daniel Defoe
" At this place lived an ancient gentle
man OF very good family (Augustine
Bellson, Esq with his son. The father
measured u feet, allowing that he might
have sunk for his age Cbeing seventy-one
years old, and the son measured inches
more than his father" 1t may be hoped
that these two Goliaths were not ulti-
mately remodeled after the fashion of
the giant grenadier in Hoods poem:
"For, when his regiment wen. to fight at Sara
gOssa as town,
4 Frenchman thought he looked too tall, and so
he cut him down"
Among the various traditions Of
Holmesdale eccentric wills and requests
play prominent part. in the archives
of Wotton Church one may still read
how William Glanville (the nephew of
that celebrated John Evelyn of Wotton)
left property for the payment every year
of 4Os. $50 to GIVE poor boys OF the
parish OF Wotton, who with their hands
laid upon his gravestone should repeat
by heart, in a plain and audible voice.
the Lords Prayer, the Apostles Greed,
and the Ten Commandment should
read the fifteenth chapter OF the First
Epistle TO the Corinthians-and should
write in legible hand two verses of the
same chapter"
The father OF this same William Clan
vile, as if determined not to be sur
passed in singularity by bis eccentric
son, directed in his Will las John Evelyn
himself tells us in his famous diary y
that his body should be wrapped III
lead and carried down to Greenwich, put
on board ship there, and buried in the
sea between Dover and Calais, about the
Goodwin Sands. This" adds honest
John, with a sly chuckle, occssioned
much discourse, he having no relation at
all 70 the sea-" Even this queer fune-
ral. however, was completely outdone by
that which Major Peter Labiliere, Of
the Royal Marines, contrived for him
self here in 1900. The whole popula-
ton of Dorking followed his body to its
grave on Box Hill, as we'll they might,
the worthy Major having given strict
orders in his will that he should be
buried head downward
This extraordinary fancy was literally
carried out. 4 kind of well ten feet
deep was sunk in the chalk of Box Hill
and the coffin placed in it, standing on
its upper end, after which the hole was
filed in and stamped down, and the con-
gregation dispersed. Popular rumor ex-
planned these singular proceedings by
asserting it to be Major Labillier's firm
conviction that the world was one day to
turn upside down. in which case he,
being buried head downward would
find himself standing in an erect
military attitude. as a British officer
should do, all ready for anything that
might "turn up" Where the good man
can have got hold of such an idea-un-
less he borrowed it from "Gulliver's
Travels" in which a similar belief is at
tributed to the Lilliputians-it is not
easy to say. But his relations naturally
indignant at 8 report which seemed to
impugn theirrespected hnsman's sanity,